


Out of Darkness, Hope

by stardreamer



Category: The Hobbit (Jackson Movies), The Hobbit - All Media Types
Genre: F/M, Fix-It, Post-Canon, Quintuple Drabble
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-19
Updated: 2014-12-19
Packaged: 2018-03-02 06:48:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 500
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2803415
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stardreamer/pseuds/stardreamer
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>If the Dwarf-lord can't come to the mountain, maybe the mountain can come to the Dwarf-lord.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Out of Darkness, Hope

The rebuilding of Erebor and Dale was going to be a long, hard task, and one with little joy at the end of it. True, the dragon was dead, the Orcs defeated, and Erebor reclaimed - but it felt like a hollow victory at best, with the line of Durin wiped out. Before Gandalf left to see Bilbo safely back to the Shire, he consulted with Dain and, in a last desperate measure, messengers were sent out to seek for any trace of Thrain that could be found; if it was only his bones, that was still better than not knowing. Dis was too old to bear another child, even if any could have been found bold and cruel enough to ask it of her. The shadow of mourning lay deep and cold over Erebor. 

"Gandalf?" 

The wizard looked up from his beer and book; he appeared to have been buried deep in some kind of research, but as usual he had a smile for her. "Yes, Tauriel?" 

"I need to know something." Having gotten that much out, her brain stalled on the next bit. She fidgeted uncomfortably, and finally drew a deep breath and just blurted the words out. "Would the Dwarves accept a half-blood Heir?" 

Gandalf's jaw dropped open. "You and Kili? But when... how...?" 

"It was that night in Laketown, when I healed him of the Morgul-wound." Her mind drifted back to it...

*** 

"All of you, please go. He slips, he fades -- I need to be alone with him, to make sure he stays with us. I will call you when it is safe to move him." They had all yielded to her authority without question, humans and Dwarves alike. And then she had looked down into Kili's beautiful eyes, and smiled, and said, "I am real, Kili, and I am here with you. And this is real as well." It had been hasty and a little awkward, but the expression on his face had been so worth it.

*** 

She looked down. "It was simple selfishness, the thought that although I couldn't have him, perhaps I could claim something of him to remember. And then the dragon came, and then I was away scouting with Legolas, and then when we got back..." Her throat closed, remembering Kili's desperate bravery and the sight of his broken body lying on the ice.

"And so you... and it caught? That's a piece of luck I wouldn't have expected." 

"Nor did I, really," she replied. "I wasn't even sure myself until a few days ago. I can't go back to the Woodland Realms now, even if Thranduil were to lift my banishment. I wasn't sure what I was going to do - and then it hit me, that this was _Kili's_ child, and that might be very important now. So I have come to ask you my question." 

"Well, my dear, I don't know the answer. But we can certainly find out." Gandalf closed his book. "Let us go and speak with Dain."

**Author's Note:**

> After watching the third movie, I realized that there was _just_ time enough at the end of the second movie for this to be plausible. And really, if you're going to insert a romance out of nowhere, you might as well make good use of it!


End file.
